343 head Bonnie Ross just published a new post on the Halo 5 Waypoint blog, in which she reflects on the development journey of Halo 5: Guardians.

Bonnie Ross in action

Development on Halo 5: Guardians started 3 years ago, when 343 studio head Josh Holmes and his team laid out the creative, technical, and production vision for Halo 5. Ross writes that, at that time:

“Josh noted that, give or take a few details, we delivered on all the key pillars we set out to achieve: locking framerate at 60fps, pushing the Xbox One and Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure to enable the biggest Halo campaign, the most epic multiplayer battles, and the deepest level of customization and player investment Halo has ever seen. At the same time, we heard the community feedback to bring back truly balanced Halo multiplayer with Arena and esports – all while doubling down on the player fantasy fulfillment of slipping into 900 lbs. of super soldier cybernetics, with movement speed, agility, and verticality”

Ross continues that as she sat in her studio, listening to Holmes reflect on his team and Halo 5 development, she found herself getting a little teary. The head of 343 writes being so proud on what the team at 343 has become:

“As I sat in our studio meeting yesterday, with my now empty champagne cup, listening to Josh reflect on his team and the game they’ve built; and Frank talk about his franchise team, the story they weaved, the toys, HCS esports, the community; and Kiki talk about the Halo Channel and Waypoint integration with Halo 5, our new Spartan Companies feature, and the new animated feature for The Fall of Reach; I found myself getting a little teary (note: Tim Longo sort of teared up too so it wasn’t just me). I was so proud of who this team has become and what they’ve accomplished together. So today as I sat down to gather my thoughts about this 3 year journey, I intended to write about some crazy or stressful point during production, about the beta, about Warzone, etc. But my thoughts kept going back to how I felt sitting in the theater yesterday; I was so moved by the passion and strength of our people and who this team had become over the last few years. This three year journey was about creating an epic Halo 5 experience. But maybe, more importantly, it was also about 343 Industries transitioning from a startup game studio trying to build their first Halo title, to the team who will lead this universe going forward”.

For the full post, I suggest heading over to the official Halo waypoint blog. As we posted earlier this week, 343 managed to deliver an almost solid framerate of 60 frames per second for the upcoming Halo 5. The studio uses a new progressive resolution system that allows them to dynamically scale the resolution at which the game is rendered. The game is able to render up to 1080P based on the needs of the scene. For Halo 5 , 343 overhauled the Halo game engine and made important technical advances to ensure an almost solid 60FPS.